Batt To Recommend Help For N. Idaho Floods Damages Estimated As High As $100 Million

Dealing with North Idaho’s disastrous floods, with damages estimated as high as $100 million, will open the seventh week of the 1996 session.

On Tuesday, the House and Senate will come together for an unprecedented mid-session report from Gov. Phil Batt on the flood problems.

Statehouse veterans can’t ever remember a governor meeting with the full Legislature to discuss a problem. By tradition, the only time the chief executive usually appears before a formal session of the Legislature is to give his State of the State and budget messages.

Batt and other top state officials made three aerial trips to North Idaho in five days assessing the damage. He capped the trips by returning to Boise last week for a meeting with President Clinton to discuss the flooding.

The president promised quick federal aid, but Batt and his staff say that won’t cover the extensive damage to state roads and bridges in the 10 northern counties. The governor’s staff planned to spend the weekend looking at all state funds to see where money could be squeezed out for flood relief.

The Legislature will get a quick start on flood relief. Today, the House Revenue and Taxation Committee will take up the governor’s bill to remove the 3-percent cap on annual property tax increases to allow flood-damaged counties to make emergency levies.

The measure would apply only in counties where a disaster has been declared, and would allow extra taxes only for the year after the disaster declaration. It’s expected to clear the tax panel with little opposition and could get consideration by the full House late in the week.

The governor also is prodding the Legislature to move on legislation boosting the state fuel tax by 4 cents per gallon effective in July and increasing the registration fees on cars and light trucks.

Together, the tax increases would generate an additional $34 million per year in highway revenue.

Batt feels the money is needed now more than ever because of the flood damage.

Elsewhere, House Human Resources Chairman Robert Schaefer, R-Nampa, set Tuesday, Feb. 27 for the first hearing on the Senate-passed bill adding farm workers to workers compensation coverage for the first time.

The Senate approved the measure 30-5 on Feb. 9.

Schaefer said everyone who wants to testify on the bill will be given an opportunity. He might even hold another session on the legislation two days later if necessary.

Legislative leaders feel the measure will be voted out of Schaefer’s committee. But even though Batt is personally lobbying for the bill, the House vote figures to be close - within a vote or two either way.

The Senate Resources and Environment Committee plans a hearing Tonight on legislation sponsored by Sen. Judi Danielson, R-Council, to authorize the state Land Board to enter into agreements with the Forest Service for joint operation of Forest Service land.

Today, the House State Affairs Committee will attempt to deal again with legislation designed to change the ballot initiative process. The latest version of a bill sponsored by Boise Republican Rep. Milt Erhart would limit the number of signatures that can be gathered in a single county, but not require a certain number of signatures to be collected from all of Idaho’s 44 counties.

Erhart’s first bill would have required initiative sponsors to get a minimum number of signatures from all counties. The latest version requires signatures from just 33 counties.

On Tuesday, House State Affairs will attempt to deal again with legislation on tobacco “sting” operations. An earlier version ran into opposition because it removed local control over operations to check for illegal sales of tobacco to youth and interfered with anti-smoking efforts.

The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee will act Tuesday afternoon on legislation to give judges a raise for the first time since 1993. The bill would give judges a 5-percent raise on July 1 and another 4 percent on July 1, 1997.

Accompanying legislation raises court fees to pay for it.